The Pontifical Academy for Life launches an international appeal to all scientists, researchers, and academics to enact concrete actions to promote peace across the world.
By Isabella H. de Carvalho
As conflicts continue across the globe, the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life has launched an appeal to scientists across the world to enact concrete actions to promote peace.
“At this particular moment in history when the language of weapons and war and the unleashing of violence take on a tragic global significance, which also limits scientific research, scientists and academics around the world are called upon to take a stand for peace and to engage in the search for ways of reconciliation and conflict resolution, starting from the daily practice of their research,” explained a statement released on Wednesday, March 11.
The call to action was promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life and sponsored by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
It is open to scientists, researchers, and academics from all disciplines, regardless of nationality, cultural tradition, political orientation, or religious affiliation.
Promoting and defending human life
The appeal offers researchers, scientists, and academics specific points to focus on, ranging from promoting research projects involving people of different cultures to monitoring the risk of scientific research being used for improper or unintended purposes, such as in the military sector, to recognizing research as a meaningful tool for building peace.
The Academy highlighted that this call to action fits within one of its objectives, which is to promote interdisciplinary studies on “issues concerning the promotion and defense of human life.”
“Guided by the pursuit of truth, scientific research is based on rigorous methodologies and grows through the sharing of knowledge and a willingness to continually question itself,” said the statement.
The Academy encourages competition and debate within the scientific community to be based on “transparent communication” and “to overcome personal interests, with the aim of contributing to the common heritage of knowledge, even beyond national borders.”
The appeal can be signed on the Pontifical Academy for Life’s website.
